


Of Our Own Accord

by OxyMoron1610



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, KindaDivergentButNotReally, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-12 01:09:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18435908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OxyMoron1610/pseuds/OxyMoron1610
Summary: Merin was always being told he was "special" from family, friends, and adversaries alike. He didn't much care for being different; in fact, he tended to prefer being able to hide in plain sight. And finding out he's Divergent definitely doesn't help. But then Arthur Pendragon invades his space and makes Merlin feel things he didn't know he could. And hiding isn't even a possibility any more.





	Of Our Own Accord

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, everyone! My name’s Kate or Oxy! I’ve been a Merthur fan since before I saw Merlin (I watched a lot of Merthur videos on YouTube...) This is my first attempt at a fic so we’ll see how it goes.
> 
> The title is a reference to Lancelot's line "I lay it down of my own accordance."
> 
> Also, I realize I’m probably too new to get a beta,...but I’d really appreciate it lol.  
> Ok... on with the story!
> 
> (Sidenote: I don’t know how to write mature scenes so I sadly don’t think I can do that, sorry!!)

  My mother and I use the mirror once a year. I only had to see Emrys once a year. He had sharp cheekbones and sad, tired blue eyes. I didn’t like looking at him. 

  Most days, I was perfectly fine just being Merlin. Merlin lived with his mother, ate with his mates, and wished to be in a different faction just like every other teenager. But, alas, today was that once-a-year day. 

  The day all newly-turned eighteen year olds would be choosing their new factions. 

  “Merlin, dear, your time is almost up. Are you sure you don’t want me to cut your hair? It is getting quite long.” I looked up and saw my lovely mother in her “best” clothes, which were almost threadbare, before giving her one of my standard small smiles. 

  I brushed the fringe out of my eyes before replying, “I think I’ll be fine, Mum.” 

  “Well, have you decided which faction you’ll be choosing yet?” I could tell she was a little nervous. “Will is going to Erudite, you know. You could join him; I wouldn’t mind that at all.” 

  “As if. Erudite seems a little farfetch'd for me.” 

  “So you’ll be staying then?” She looked up at me with renewed hope. 

  “I’m… I’m not entirely sure yet. You know I don’t really want to stay here, but...” I trailed off. I tried to sneak a glance at my mum in the mirror. She had plastered on a fake smile, and I could tell she was trying to hold back her tears until I left. 

  “Just know that I will love you regardless of your choice, ‘kay?” I stood to kiss her cheek. “Now, no more blubbering! Don’t forget that we’re going to be eating dinner with Will and his parents tonight.” 

  I nodded my understanding before saying, “I guess I’m heading off to school then. I’ll see you later.” Her response was a simple goodbye. And then I was gone. I tried not to look back at the house because I knew she would be standing at the window with all of the love she possessed showing brightly on her face, but in the end I couldn’t stop myself. 

  This might be the last time I really looked at my mum. The last time I saw my mother’s naturally curly hair fall into her face. It could be the last time I saw her bright blue eyes that I knew she passed down to me. And her beautiful irises were swallowed up by the huge tears rolling down her red cheeks. I immediately ran back inside and crushed her with a hug. 

  After a minute, I backed away and quickly left to the sound of mother’s sniffles.

 

                                                                                                            ~~~

 

  School today was a lot different than usual than it usually is. For example, Will was quiet for the first time in his life; and it was freaking me out more than I’d like to say. All of the eighteen year olds sat in the cafeteria even after the bell rang waiting to be called into the small hallway where we would take the test of our nightmares.

  Technically no one truly knew what we were in for because it was a different test for everyone, and we had to take it today so we would have a better idea of which faction we should choose later tonight.

  My name is called pretty early on, so I awkwardly stand up. I look at Will as I pass by, and he sends a calming smile my way. It doesn’t do much for my knotted stomach, but I’m grateful regardless.

  After a few minutes of walking down the hall to where the bathrooms are I walk into a room without any lights on. The sign on the door reads “Merlin Emrys” so I can only assume I’m in the right place. I rapt on the door, and the whole thing shakes thunderously. A old, crackly voice calls out, “Come in.”

  Sitting inside is an old, hunched-over man with reading glasses almost falling off of his long nose. “Hi, I’m Merlin.”

  He acknowledges me with a nod and tells me to sit down in the chair adjacent to his. After I do so, he says, “My name is Gaius, and, as I’m sure you already know, I’ll be the one giving you the ‘faction test.’” He pulls out a needle from the one drawer in the room that isn’t closed off by a cable tie and fills it with a smooth, white cream that smells like honey before tapping it with his thumb a couple of times. “Now, this shouldn’t hurt, but it will definitely make your arm go numb, so when you wake up, please try not to baby your arm, okay?” 

  “What’s going to happen to me?” I’m not going to lie; that needle was freaking me out a little bit. 

  “As I’m sure you’re already aware, the ‘dreams’ are different for everyone so I can’t really say.” He pursed his lips when he was done speaking to signify there was to be no further discussion. I simply nodded my head, and tried not to think of vomiting because I knew from prior experiences that if I thought on it long enough I would be sick. I leaned my head back on the head rest and tried to prepare for the impact.

                                                                                                            ~~~

  The impact never came. I opened my eyes and find myself in a white room. No windows, no doors. Just… white. I turned in a slow circle, surveying the small area. Nothing but white. I faced frontwards once more, but this time there were two pedestals in front of me, each supporting a large, white bowl. I frowned at the sight. Those had definitely not been there before. 

  I crept toward them cautiously and peered inside, trying to view their contents from a safe distance. To my annoyance, I couldn’t. The bowls were too deep for me to see the bottom. 

  “Get closer.” 

  I, of course, jumped back. 

  “W-who’s there?” I called suspiciously, the beginnings of a cold sweat forming on my forehead. I glanced around, but there was still just myself, the basins, and the whiteness.

  “Get closer,” the disembodied voice repeated, more stern this time.

  I complied. Of course I did. What else would I have done? The voice was pounding in my head in the same way my heart was pounding in my chest.

  I stood directly behind them and looked inside. In the bowl on the left was a flower, unremarkable on all accounts. Pretty, but useless. I wrinkled my nose at it and turned to the other bowl. In this bowl there was a pendant.

  It wasn’t anything fancy. A chain made of dark metal, a small tag with an inscription, and a red stone, held by the chain. The stone had many facets, more than I cared to count. It was about as unremarkable as the flower to me, but I was strangely drawn to it nonetheless. I had a feeling that I was supposed to choose between the two. I already knew which to pick.

  I stepped forward and grasped the necklace, and the pedestals disappeared, leaving me with the necklace in utter and irremovable whiteness.

  I waited and listened. Receiving no prompt to do otherwise, I brought the necklace closer to my face to further observe it. From that close, the red of the stone seemed to almost swirl and float inside the bounds of the walls that held it in. ‘ _The only color in this bland room_ ,’ I thought to myself. I squinted at the tag and read the words aloud- “Bloodstone.”

  I laughed a little at that. Definitely more interesting than the flower.

  I looked up, and my surroundings had changed again. I was sitting on a bus this time. Right next to me was a man using language so colorful and being so loud about it that I almost missed the monotony of the white room. I gave him a look, which he returned with enthusiasm. I got an odd sense of deja vu, like I knew him, but my thoughts were cut off by his rude voice.

  “What? You got a problem?”

  Trying to avoid his gaze, I shook my head. “Nope. No problem here, mate.”

  I grimaced at myself. I suppose I had been looking at him oddly… But he seems familiar, and not in a good way.

  I could feel his glare burning into the side of my head, but I tried to ignore him. I fiddled with the sleeve of my shirt and looked around the bus. There were a few other people, unsurprisingly cliqued up into small groups who sat with an almost reverent quiet. I glanced discreetly back at the man beside me and found, to my discomfort, that he was still glaring at me. His glare was now suspicious, though.

  “Do I… know you?”

  I shook my head again. “Uh… no. Don’t think so, sorry.”

  He shook his head back, much more aggressively than I did. “I’m pretty sure I know you, dimwit, from somewhere,” he growled. He squinted and leaned in uncomfortably close. His breath smelled like fish, and I tried not to make a face. “Oh, no, I am absolutely certain I know you.” He seemed to be talking more to himself than to me. “I don’t know where, or when, but I know I’ve seen your scrawny rat-face before.” He glared for a moment more, and suddenly his expression changed from distrust to of craftiness that I, needless to say, did not like very much. “Listen, kid, if you know me, you could get me out of some serious trouble. Vouch for me, ya know?”

  I squinted back, more than a little affronted. Even if I did know him, there was no way I was admitting it now. “Sorry, my ‘rat-face’ and I have never met you before. Now if you’ll excuse me,” I made a move to get up, and everything disappeared again.

                                                                                                            ~~~

  “You need to leave.” My eyes snap open. The old man is limping all over the room.

  “What are you talking about? Did my test go wrong with my test?”

  “You’re going to go home and tell your family that your test was inconclusive. Say it made you sick, and you couldn’t finish. I don’t know, make something up! But you need to leave.”

  He pauses for the first time since I had woken up from my test. He moves right next to me and stares into my eyes. “You, my boy, are a divergent. That means you don’t fit into any category. And there are people who will want to kill you because of that. You can’t tell anyone that you’re divergent; no one.”

  He pushes me out of the room after that, and even though I have no idea what just happened, I go to the lobby to look for Will. He isn’t there, so I decide to walk back on my own. I try to process this whole divergent thing, but I just can’t wrap my head around it.


End file.
